you got yourself two good hands

...And when your brother is troubled you gotta

reach out your hand for him,

'cause that's what it's there for

And when your heart is troubled

you've gotta reach out

your other hand, reach it out

to the Man up there 'Cause

that's what He's there for...

-------------------------

sometimes I forget how great Neil Diamond is, and then I put it on, and --

Aaauugh!

When God made Neil Diamond He said to Himself, "today I'm going to make a musical artist to be enjoyed, loved, and never forgotten."

Then He put on His Goggles, got His Tool Box, and made Neil Diamond, then crossed that off His List of Work Orders.

-------------------------------

Diamond's delivery has a richness and sweetness that just grabs you, whether or not you wish to be grabbed. The thing you notice is how many of his songs "shift gears" several times, throughout -- there's the slower, contemplative passage, then building up a little faster, a little more powerful, 'til it's rockin' totally.

Above lyric from "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show" -- perfect example -- the part typed in at the top -- two good hands, etc. -- is actually spoken, not sung -- like Rap.

When I hear "Cracklin' Rosie," "Holly Holy," "Soolaimon," "Cherry Cherry," and of course Traveling Salvation, I feel like I'm riding in a car with somebody on a bright summer day, over a curving, forest-lined road in the hills.

...Maybe that's because when I first heard these songs -- I was ...'riding in a car with somebody on a bright summer day, over a curving, forest-lined road in the hills.'

The summer I was 18, before leaving for school, I worked as a waitress in a resort town. Met a man who was a writer -- he was driving me back home one day & he put in a cassette and it was Neil Diamond.

The writer told me, "I like this kind of music -- it brings you up -- makes you feel good."

The writer was older than me. It was like sitting around talking with a real -- grown-up.

That summer: !! thing is, guys my age, the conversation would be:

Wanna get high?

Wanna go in the bedroom?

...Wanna get high?

(What can I say? -- it was a laid-back era...)

Inside my head, the conversations would go this way:

"Wanna get high?"

("I don't know how to smoke.")

"Wanna go in the bedroom?"

("I don't even know your -- last -- name!")

"Wanna get high?"

("I already told you, I don't smoke.")

--------------------however, in Reality it was worded more circumspectly, but gist was same. I'd take a side road -- "Can I see your records?"

People would have record albums all in a row, on a shelf, or lined up just on the floor, with something holding them steady, at the left and the right, like book-ends.

(That's probably how I became really immersed in Music -- spent so much time on people's floors, reviewing their album collections..)

One guy I remember had old albums -- (not as "old" then as now!!) the Beatles--"White Album" and Country Joe & the Fish (no kidding!) -- And it's one-two-three -- what are we fightin' for? Don't ask me I don't give a damn -- next stop is Viet Nam...

also bands called Hot Tuna, and Canned Heat,

which I got mixed up, thought was Canned Tuna.

The Writer talked to me about California and Carmel and books and authors and his book that he was writing. We went to a big nightclub and listened to a live band, and danced. We ate salad one day in a diner in a little tourist town, & had steak one evening -- I wore a dress.

He encouraged me in my ambition to be a writer, and in my college plans.

Like a mentor, I guess.

I never had to sit on his floor and go through the record albums.

And the really powerful gift was -- he asked me to take a copy of the novel he was writing and read it, and write my comments about it -- like a "test audience," sort of. He said it was fine to put comments or notes right in the margins, because it was an extra copy which he had made for that purpose.

---------------------I read it, and made some notes, gave it back; when he got back to me, later, he said he really appreciated me reading it and that my comments were very thoughtful and helpful -- something like that.

This had a profound impact. Because of the age I was -- summer after high school, and it was formative -- transformative, sort of. Internalized an understanding that my

opinion,

ideas,

impressions,

feelings --

counted.

That's worth a million.

Have to channel gratitude into Something Positive for Somebody Else. ...

-30-